


Unbound

by intheheart



Series: Nirwen Lavellan [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bisexuality, F/F, First Love, Mild Smut, Original Character(s), Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 12:40:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4349198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intheheart/pseuds/intheheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is another short work about my canon (Dalish) Lavellan Inquisitor when she was a teenager experiencing her first love. </p><p>After getting stuck together weeks ago led to hesitant kisses and a realization there was more between them, Nirwen and her training partner, Nehn navigate the early, overwhelming, undefinable, secretive, confusing days of first love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbound

Light filtered thick and hazy through the treetops, the heat of the highest sun reaching even here. The nearby river moved slowly, the bend a convenient watering hole for prey. Nirwen observed the two goats from behind a tree, hands loosely at her side. It wasn't time. She moved her hand in a gesture to halt. Suddenly, a bird's shrill call broke the calm from above, and the goats were startled into a rapid decision to run. Nigh-imperceptible footsteps drew closer. Nehn placed a softly calloused hand into hers, lips brushing the back of her neck. “We'll find more,” she reassured. “Those two had babes. We'll let them grow first.” This was the reason Nirwen signaled a halt. That Nehn read her so intuitively made working together, and _being_ together, feel as natural as air.

Since that stormy night weeks ago ended in a cave, when huddling for warmth gave way to fumbling, hesitant kisses, both knew there was more. Nirwen's senses, trained for duty, were enough to track and detect the smallest movement or sound, but this sensation was always birdlike, fragile but strong, ready to fly as the warmth extended outward, filling her, opening her up from the inside out. If a mage had sent lightning down through her body each time she and Nehn touched, Nirwen imagined it would feel similar, and almost as intense.

They were both chosen for this, to follow the Vir Tanadahl, to learn to lead, to rely on one another, to supply, to protect, and to bend without breaking. Nirwen took up the blades, meditations, and learned to obscure her presence, observe, hide, and wait. Nehn, all precision, sharp eyes and steady hands took the bow, wounded and distracted their prey, leaving Nirwen to the kill and preparation. At sixteen, they were already parts in the organized machine of their clan, trusted to scout and make supply runs on their own, together. In the space between a childhood of expectations, climbing the trees, yearning for a new move and an adventure, always with the knowledge you were part of something more, and the adulthood of sacrifice and tradition, a life in honor of those who tread before, the spirit of a broken and ruined past, yet with a promise to serve the People and grow, into new memory, a reflection of the old ways in a world. Their work, reflection of their people and the lives they would always lead.

Nirwen turned. Eyes, bark brown, met her own as they both drew into an embrace. She laughed, feeling her face burn behind the spray of freckles covering it, their lips, more confidently now, met. Nehn's hands slid down to her hips as Nirwen glanced at the braid Nehn always wore over her shoulder. This was still so new, and yet the hunger, that companion running through her felt like a path that had been obscured in the shadows for too long, now visible, open, and illuminated. When Nehn was not with her, a cold fear crept in, in spite of herself. When Nehn was nearby, her smile, the way her fingers curled around an arrow, the freckles under her eyes, all became much more present than they had ever been before.

Nirwen tamped down her desire in moments where she had responsibilities, the meditations taught to them both for focus and to sense the natural elements around them, predict the paths of animals, know what made suitable locations for their clan, these helped quiet both of their minds when necessary. Yet the small gestures, a hand in another, a hip brushed against hers, they were not mere affection, but tiny promises, permissions, dreams shared. This was still all theirs yet, something each girl kept locked away from their Keeper and their families. Out here, two girls could have quiet moments as long as they kept up their duties. It was like a training exercise in itself, learning to obscure the traces. They enjoyed tuning their tracking skills in reverse.

Their scouting finished, a fruitful hunt concluded after all, ready to bring back at first light, both girls lay in the tent. Nirwen rose on her elbows, silencing an inner voice of surprise. She unbound that braid, slowly unraveling the plaits, ran her fingers through and set it out around her. Her mouth taking Nehn in, the taste of salt and grit from the hot day's work upon her skin, tongue tracing a hidden path known only to her, from an ear, down her throat, feeling the wild pulse below, two sets of hands rushing to loosen a belt, Nehn sliding the tunic away, her arms finding Nirwen, pulling her tight in rhythm with soft moans and breathy giggles. Nirwen's tongue retracing a secret map between her tender breasts down to her belly. Nehnariel, her training partner, the friend who made her breath catch and heart flutter, the precise girl without precision.


End file.
